The Eyes of Ara for iOS has launched! You can get it right now on the App Store:

The game features a redesigned UI for mobiles, custom UI and cameras for iPhones and iPads, smooth and intuitive touch controls, and the new journal system for tracking all your books, notes, and clues.

I’m so excited that it's finally out there for everyone to enjoy. A lot of work went into translating the experience to mobile, and I couldn't be more happy with the result.

Check out the launch trailer here:

KickMyGeek.com has already given it a 9 out of 10, calling it “an excellent game of exploration and puzzles that fans of the genre will appreciate”.

But now I’m looking forward to hearing what you think, so check it out and let me know :)

Delve back into the mysteries of the old castle, explore its dusty halls, and relive the puzzling adventure in the palm of your hand. The iOS version perfectly captures the experience of the original game and is a joy to play with the new touch screen controls. Check out the announcement trailer:

The Eyes of Ara for iOS also comes with a new feature to help while gaming on the go: the new Journal System tracks all books, letter, notes, and clues that you find throughout each Chapter, giving you easy access to them at any time. No need to carry a notepad with you on the bus or swap out to another app mid-game :)

Those of you who prefer the desktop version won’t be left out either, the Journal system will be included in an update for PC and Mac later this year.

A few other refinements have also been made for the iOS version. The UI and inventory bar has been adapted separately for iPhones and iPads, maximizing screen space and ensuring you ever have to squint to read the UI.
All puzzle cameras were given separate attention too, with their placement adjusted to account for the different screen sizes and inventory positions.
The end result is a game that plays great no matter what size screen you are using.

It’s very exciting to finally be able to break this news, I look forward to everyone being able to enjoy it real soon on July 12!

The Eyes of Ara patch 1.3.00 is now live! Along with a few minor fixes, this patch includes support for an additional 7 languages, bringing to the total number to 10!

In addition to the patch, this update also sees the launch of the new Art Book DLC. Previously only available to the game’s Kickstarter backers, the artbook is now available for Steam users to grab a hold of too!

New Language Options Now Available

Good news! The Eyes of Ara now supports multiple new languages. Players can now hunt down lost secrets and unravel the mysteries of the old castle in French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian-Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. This is in addition to German and Russian support which was introduced in Patch 1.2.00.

Languages can be switched in the Display Settings from the main menu.

The Eyes of Ara Free Demo has also been updated with the new languages.

As an additional bonus, the Castle Maps DLC has also been localized into all supported languages!

New DLC: The Art and Design of The Eyes of Ara

Discover the hidden secrets behind the design and development of The Eyes of Ara in this detailed art book. Featuring beautiful high resolution images, development sketches, design notes, developer insights, and behind-the-scenes commentary from the game’s creator.

This 46 page book includes sections focusing on the game’s pre-production, level design, puzzle design, story, collectibles, environments, the Eyes, and more! An excellent companion piece for fans of The Eyes of Ara.

The Art and Design of The Eyes of Ara is provided as a high-resolution PDF.

Purchase The Art and Design of The Eyes of Ara separately, or pick it up as part of the Deluxe Edition and get this, the other DLC, and the game all together for a discounted price!

I’m pleased to announce the launch of The Eyes of Ara Deluxe Edition. This combo pack includes a copy of The Eyes of Ara, plus both new DLC packs: The Original Soundtrack and Castle Maps (details on these below). Get them all together in this bundle pack for a 10% discount!Click here to visit the Steam page and grab yourself a copy.

New DLC: The Eyes of Ara Original Soundtrack

Experience The Eyes of Ara’s beautiful, sweeping score with this Original Soundtrack by the game's composer, Matt Caradus. Provided in both high quality 320kbps MP3 format and uncompressed FLAC format.

New DLC: Castle Maps

Delve even deeper into the mystery of The Eyes of Ara. Hunt down lost secrets and explore the castle like never before with these beautiful, hand-drawn maps of the game's three primary chapters. Each map comes in both a full-colour poster version and a printable black & white version with ample space to note down clues, secrets, and hidden rooms.

Patch 1.2.00: Russian & German Translations now available!

The Eyes of ara patch 1.2.00 just dropped, and with it comes one of the most requested features: the Russian and German translations. Click here to read the full patch notes.

The Eyes of Ara Free Demo has also been updated with all of this patch’s features, including the translations. Try it now for Windows and Mac

I am excited to announce The Eyes of Ara: Deluxe Edition. This bundle pack will contain the The Eyes of Ara game, plus new DLC packs for the game’s Soundtrack and Castle Maps - all together for a discounted price!

The Deluxe Edition contains a copy of The Eyes of Ara, and two DLC packs: the Original Soundtrack and Castle Maps, all together in a bundle for a discounted price. These DLC packs will also be available separately, so if you missed out on them during the Kickstarter you need not miss out any longer.

Click here for the full terms and conditions of the Deluxe Edition giveaway.

I am pleased to announce The Eyes if Ara: April 1st Ultimate Update! This epic update is based on the feedback of hundreds of players, taking all the best parts of the game and multiplying them beyond reason, while eliminating the rest, and implementing some long requested features! Are you ready for this?

Do you love spinning painting puzzles? Because now every puzzle is a painting puzzle! Experience the unending fun of painting puzzles by tossing aside all that other nonsense. Locked door? Painting puzzle! PC password? Digital Painting puzzle! Telescope sequence? Painting puzzles in space!

Experience The Eyes of Ara like never before with more thrilling painting puzzles than you can handle!

All switches are now exciting new painting puzzles!

Who needs passwords anyway?

Other exciting changes in the Ultimate Update include:

Gameplay

New collectible: Ghost-motes! Like dust-motes only spookier - there are 10,000 of these tiny things to collect scattered throughout the castle.

New collectible: Christopher’s Old Hat. Can only be found under a full moon while the sun is in Aquarius.

New “Dark Mode” feature: turn off all the lighting for extra-challenging pickup hunting fun!

Retro-mode: re-live the good old days of PC gaming in low resolution, 256 color glory! Accessible via secret code.

Localisation - by popular demand!

Added support for Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics

Added support for Tanema, a language only spoken by 4 people in the Solomon Islands

This blog has been a little quiet since The Eyes of Ara launched back in July. You would think that after launching a game your workload would decrease… but alas such things are not to be! Since launching the game things have been non-stop, and I’m afraid keeping the blog up-to-date was one of the casualties. But today I find myself with a bit of free time, so let's have a look back at all the awesome stuff that’s been happening recently.

PAX Australia

Two weeks ago saw the annual migration of gamers from all over Australia down to the Melbourne Convention Centre for PAX Australia, and I was there with The Eyes of Ara. What’s more, I had an Australian Indie Showcase booth. These booths are special: you have submit your game and the entry form and a panel of judges select the six winners. I was thrilled to get the news that The Eyes of Ara had been selected as one of the winners this year, and exhibiting in the Showcase section was an incredible experience.

In many ways, PAX Aus was a kind of launch party for the game (albeit a few months late), since it was the first - and by far the biggest - convention I had shown the game at since launch. With a good deal of experience exhibiting at other conventions in the past and with the game now in full release, I went into PAX feeling way more prepared and relaxed than I had at previous conventions. I had the experience, I had all the supplies prepared, the game was out, the demo was extensively tried and tested, so what could there be to worry about?

And it was an amazing show! It was wonderful to see so many people coming up to the booth to try the game, and even more wonderful to listen to them speak excitedly about it afterwards. I even met a few people who already owned the game and just came by just to chat (as a developer, it’s great to meet players who enjoyed the game and go out of their way to come up and let you know it, so thanks to all of you!). I also brought along over 600 fliers to give out, and they were all gone by halfway through the third day!

On Saturday evening I was asked to take part in a panel with the other Indie Showcase winners, where we got to speak about our games and take questions from the audience. It was really cool to be up on stage with such amazing local talent and check out the other awesome games on offer. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend heading to the AIS page and checking out each of the winners. There are some really awesome games there and I am genuinely excited to play each of them (many of them are either out now or coming soon).

GCAP, Unite, and the Australian Game Developer Awards

While PAX may have been the main event of the past few weeks, it only marked the end of a huge week in Australian games, known as the Melbourne International Games Week. GCAP is the annual gathering of Australian game developers to network and talk about our craft, and I was there to give a talk on Art and Level Design in The Eyes of Ara. If you were at the talk, or if you’re interested, the slides can be found here.

Unite is a one-day conference dedicated to all things relating to the Unity 3D game engine. I’m proud to say that The Eyes of Ara was selected as part of this year’s Made With Unity Showcase, and I was given the opportunity to show the game in the Showcase hall along with a host of other amazing Australian games.

Finally, in what was perhaps one of the greatest highlights since I began The Eyes of Ara over three years ago, I was honored to be nominated for the Excellence in Art award at this year’s Australian Game Developer Awards. Unfortunately I didn’t walk away with the win, but to stand among my peers and see my game up on the big screen, nominated alongside other such amazing works was truly humbling. If nothing else, I left inspired to make something even better next time, and hopefully one day see one of my games in the Game of the Year category as well!

Onward to the Future

The Games Week and PAX marks a kind of milestone for The Eyes of Ara - the first big event deadline since launch and the last for a while. I’m now back in the office in Brisbane, and back to work on the game. There’s a lot more to come over the next few months, and I’ll do my best to keep the blog updated with the latest details. Some things to look out for include: A public demo for download, the remaining Kickstarter rewards, another patch with some feature requests, and several localization updates for multiple languages.

So work on The Eyes of Ara continues, I look forward to sharing all the future news and updates as it comes through!

It is with great excitement that I can now announce that The Eyes of Ara has been selected as one of the winners of the 2016 PAX Aus Australian Indie Showcase! It is indescribably humbling to have been selected as one of only six games (out of over 100 entries) to stand as "best of the Australian & New Zealand Indie scene".

What this means is, The Eyes of Ara will be shown on the show floor at PAX Aus this November in the Australian Indie Showcase section along side the other great locally made games. So if you are attending the show be sure to drop by and say hi!